October 13th 2021
Burlington House and the History of the Royal Academy
Lecture by Stephen Richardson
Burlington House and the History of the Royal Academy
Lecture by Stephen Richardson
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House on London’s Piccadilly has been the home of the Royal Academy of Arts since 1868. It is not commonly known that the building has a long and fascinating history of its own. This talk focuses on the origins of Burlington House, from construction in the 1660’s for a courtier to King Charles II to its ultimate role as the home of the United Kingdom's leading 'society for promoting the Arts of Design'.
The talk also examines the reasons behind the founding of the Royal Academy, its own early history and its Olympian era during the time of eminent Victorian artists such as Leighton, Millais and Frith.
Stephen Richardson is an art historian with a particular interest in the art and architecture of the Georgian period. He is a guide at both the Royal Academy of Arts and at the V&A.
The talk also examines the reasons behind the founding of the Royal Academy, its own early history and its Olympian era during the time of eminent Victorian artists such as Leighton, Millais and Frith.
Stephen Richardson is an art historian with a particular interest in the art and architecture of the Georgian period. He is a guide at both the Royal Academy of Arts and at the V&A.
Novvember 10th 2021
Treasures of the Silk Road
Lecture by Christopher Bradley
Treasures of the Silk Road
Lecture by Christopher Bradley
The Bezeklik Caves bezeklik-caves_orig
The Silk Road extended for over 8,000 kms, acting as a highway for beliefs, ideas, inventions and art, whilst silk was just one of the many products traded for 1,400 years. Buddhism spread throughout Central Asia and there are wonderful paintings from the Magao Caves at Dunhuang and the 'Caves of the Thousand Buddhas' at Bezeklik. Along the way we also see traditional murals, ceramics, statues, carpets, architecture, mosaics, tile-work, rock carvings and of course, silk itself.
Christopher Bradley is an expert in the history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa. He has led groups throughout the Middle East and Asia and he has made documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic TV and Channel 4.
Christopher Bradley is an expert in the history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa. He has led groups throughout the Middle East and Asia and he has made documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic TV and Channel 4.
December 8th 2021
Grandfather Frost and the Old New Year: Russian Christmas
Lecture by Dr Rosamund Bartlett
Grandfather Frost and the Old New Year: Russian Christmas
Lecture by Dr Rosamund Bartlett
Grandfather Frost Russian life
Imagine yourself wrapped in furs, speeding along in a troika, bells ringing, as you come home from church after celebrating the end of the 40-day Christmas fast. This lecture explores the traditional religious and folk customs associated with Christmas in Russia before the Revolution, the secular celebrations introduced to Russia by Peter the Great, the drastic changes introduced in Soviet times by Stalin, and what Christmas means to Russians today.
Dr Bartlett is a writer, lecturer and translator. She has written books on Checkov and Tolstoy and translated Anna Karenina for the Oxford World Classics. She contributes regularly to Proms events and opera broadcasts for the BBC.
Dr Bartlett is a writer, lecturer and translator. She has written books on Checkov and Tolstoy and translated Anna Karenina for the Oxford World Classics. She contributes regularly to Proms events and opera broadcasts for the BBC.
January 12th 2022
The Glasgow Boys, The Glasgow Girls, The Scottish Colourists and the French Connection.
Lecture by Harry Fletcher
The Glasgow Boys, The Glasgow Girls, The Scottish Colourists and the French Connection.
Lecture by Harry Fletcher
Poppies by George Henry 1891
wikipedia commons
wikipedia commons
In the 1880s and 1890s Europe and America saw the rise of artistic colonies. The Glasgow Boys were one of these and they became the toast of Europe. The Glasgow Girls were their contemporaries. The Scottish Colourists were in contact with the French Post Impressionists Matisse and Fauves. This was progressive British Arts. The lecture will discuss the lives and work of these artists.
Harry Fletcher is a practising artist. He leads art appreciation holidays, tutor for the Open University and is an examiner in the History of Art.
Harry Fletcher is a practising artist. He leads art appreciation holidays, tutor for the Open University and is an examiner in the History of Art.
Violin 'Ruby' 1708 pinterest
Two hundred and fifty years after Antonio Stradivari’s death, his violins and cellos remain the most highly prized instruments in the world. Loved by great musicians and capable of fetching fabulous sums when sold, their tone and beauty are legendary. Every subsequent violin-maker has tried to match them. Not one has succeeded. How can that be? This lecture explores that central mystery by following some of Stradivari’s instruments from his workshop to the present day.
The lecture is illustrated with pictures of violins and of key individuals and locations, as well as with some short musical recordings.
Tony Faber is an experienced lecturer and public speaker. He read Natural Sciences at Cambridge and spent 5 years managing the publishing company, Faber & Faber, founded by his grandfather. He has written narrative histories and a novel.
The lecture is illustrated with pictures of violins and of key individuals and locations, as well as with some short musical recordings.
Tony Faber is an experienced lecturer and public speaker. He read Natural Sciences at Cambridge and spent 5 years managing the publishing company, Faber & Faber, founded by his grandfather. He has written narrative histories and a novel.
bbc.com
The discovery of the grave of King Richard III in Leicester raised an army of new and fascinating questions. How could a diminutive person, suffering from a significant spinal condition, have become a skilled practitioner of the knightly fighting arts? How could he have worn armour and fought in three major battles?
Here we encounter armour as an expressive art-form, designed to radiate messages, justifications, proof of the wearer’s right to rule as a king- a wielder of divine power on Earth.
Toby is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London and an internationally-acknowledged authority on Medieval and Renaissance weapons.
Here we encounter armour as an expressive art-form, designed to radiate messages, justifications, proof of the wearer’s right to rule as a king- a wielder of divine power on Earth.
Toby is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London and an internationally-acknowledged authority on Medieval and Renaissance weapons.
April 13th 2022
William Wordsworth : His Legacy in Poetry and Art
lecture by Michael Howard
William Wordsworth : His Legacy in Poetry and Art
lecture by Michael Howard
National Portrait Gallery
Wordsworth defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”; an idea that has inspired poets and artists ever since. This lecture will use his poetry as a springboard to explore how artists and poets have used their art bring back to us the gift of child-like wonder, delight and amazement at the world and our place within it. To celebrate how our everyday experience of the highs and lows of life can be transformed into something extraordinary. Artists and poets to be discussed will include Blake, Constable, Turner and Hockney; Wordsworth, Yeats, Emily Dickinson and Ted Hughes
Michael Howard teaches at Manchester School of Art, is President of the Arts Society Bolton and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art.
Michael Howard teaches at Manchester School of Art, is President of the Arts Society Bolton and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art.
May 11th 2022
The Luttrell Psalter: England on the verge of Black Death
lecture by Professor Michelle Brown
The Luttrell Psalter: England on the verge of Black Death
lecture by Professor Michelle Brown
British Library
This is one of the most unusual and insightful of English medieval artworks. Made for Sir Geoffrey Luttrell in the 1330s, on the eve of the Black Death, its pages are inhabited by a menagerie of outrageous grotesques and by images that give us a valuable and unparalleled glimpse into life in manorial England and into the mind of a leading baronial patron and the artists and confessors who served him and who tried to steer his soul towards eternity. Meet the Luttrells and their world by exploring their great artistic epitaph.
Michelle Brown is Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscripts, University of London.
Michelle Brown is Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscripts, University of London.
June 8th 2022
The Museum of the Missing
Lecture by Shauna Isaac
A short AGM will take place at 2pm before the lecture at 2.15pm.
The Museum of the Missing
Lecture by Shauna Isaac
A short AGM will take place at 2pm before the lecture at 2.15pm.
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt
stolen in 1990 and still missing. wikipedia
stolen in 1990 and still missing. wikipedia
A museum made up of all the stolen artworks that remain missing would house the most valuable collection ever known. This lecture looks at missing masterpieces such as Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man, Vermeer’s The Concert, and the missing panel from the Ghent Altarpiece. The lecture will examine how these works were taken and the impact that the thefts have on society.
Shauna Isaac has been active in WWII art restitution and works with families and governments to reciver Nazi looted art. She lectures for Sotherby's Institute of Art.
Shauna Isaac has been active in WWII art restitution and works with families and governments to reciver Nazi looted art. She lectures for Sotherby's Institute of Art.
Vermeer - The Concert stolen from a museum in Boston in 1990 Pinterest